Get your carnaval fix over at Masala with a bunch of great soca and other Carribean tunes. And jump on the soca train over at the Heatwave blog. And for all things New Orleans check out Home of the Groove. And if you come to the Soul Cocina in search of food and music and I sleep [dream] like I did in the last few weeks, you can always check out the sidebar to your right under cuisine for other blogs with wonderful culinary tales and recipes. And check out the musica blogroll too. I have been meaning to post more stories from Shammi and I slept on sharing my thoughts on my threefavoriteholidays that came three days in a row in January. And I didn't comment much on one of my least favorite holidays, I let Shunna speak for me on that one. Oh and since I'm backpeddling all the way to christmastime... Have you heard QDog's Christmas tune from last year on Cardboard Sangria Records?

A good friend of mine [who happens to be a great chef] recently said that they were anxious for spring and summer produce to make its way to the market. They said they were growing tired of root vegetables. I am also excited for new fruits and veggies, but I'll never get bored with root vegetables. And I love all the citrus we are blessed with, remember?

I've been working in the kitchen at Nopalito. The naranja salad is bliss. Slices of grapefruit, orange and blood orange with lime, house-made queso fresco, pickled red onions and Nopalito's special ground chile spice. As you can tell from this blog, MexicanCuisine is close to my heart. And you don't have to wait for los fines de semana for birria and pozole anymore. Come visit Nopalito 7 days a week for these crudo cures. The meat is local and sustainable. The masa is ground in house from organic corn and the tortillas are made to order. If tomatoes are not in season, you won't be seeing any pico de gallo on the plates at Nopalito. Chantenay carrots for chiles en vinagre and watermellon radishes and cabbage to top the pozole. Just like abuela used to do it.

What to do with winter produce?At home, I've been going through a few Pomelos a day. A few weeks ago I made a sunchoke soup and tossed in a few chopped mushrooms from the Alameny Farmers Market. it was like cream of mushroom soup from heaven. I often pass by the sunchokes aka Jeruselum artichokes because I don't feel like peeling them. But I discoverd that when you boil them, the flesh comes right out of the skin with ease. Then I saute onion and garlic in olive oil, add the boiled sunchokes along with some veggie stock and milk. Process with an immersion stick blender, toss in some chopped mushrooms and then season with herbs, salt and pepper. I encourage you to do the same, before they go out of season in the next week or two.

At our Monday Beacon cooking activity we made some veggie sushi with wonderful purple, red and yellow carrots and citrus spring rolls.

B.O.B was in town this month and he prepared a vegan feast with the season's bounty. He brought a bunch of stories from the farm in Wisconsin where they make there own wine and sauerkraut. He also brought ideas for a menu of grapefruit salad, vegan bbq sandwich with coleslaw, beets, and lentil soup. I added a colorful version of Aloo Gobi.

COLORFULALOOGOBIFORDREAMERS

Toast cumin, fennel seed, kalonji, coriander and dried kashmiri chillies seperately. Grind to a powder and combine.Roast yellow cauliflower, purple cauliflower, purple potatoes, yellow carrots, purple carrots with a little salt, peper and olive oil.Puree onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies with a little olive oil.Heat olive oil or ghee in 2 saute pans and cook mustard seeds until they start to pop then add the onion-ginger-garlic-chile paste [half in each pan]. In one pan add finely grated turmeric root and cook slow.Add the spice mix to both pans.Toss the yellow vegetables in the turmeric pan and the purple veggies in the other pan. Add a little veggie stock and simmer for 2 minutes until the stock evaporates and the flavors merge.Finish with cilantro and julienne raw ginger.

*To avoid overcooking the veggies I like to roast them at high tempurature on a preheated pan to give them a nice golden sear and cook for a short while so they are still firm. Then after they simmer with the spices and stock for a few minutes they will be al dente. The authentic method does not call for roasting, the veggies are all cooked down in the pan with the spices. But I like the flavor/texture/color from my roast first method.

K'naan's new album Troubadour was released today. Buy it today.I bought K'naan's first album when it came out based solely on the cover. I've been following along ever since. I have been excited for this album that was recorded at the marley family studios in Jamaica.Here's what K'naan has to say about the album [from a few days ago on myspace]

Hey folks.

I wanna start by saying thanks to all of those whohave shared with me, in person or online, how muchyou've been moved by my music. This great responseis encouraging. You must understand that a lot of artist thesedays are losing motivation. I know intimately, many would-begreat artists who are being shackled by the business of musictoday. Sales are low across the board, because most peopleare not really interested in buying music. I had a theory for a longtime that, this is because a lot of the music being made today isn'tworth people's money anyway. But when an artist steps outsidethe box, and puts his heart and soul into their music, ignoring all thevoices hoping he would stray, the weight of suspicion is greater thanyou can imagine. A lot of people out there would like for me to succeed. But there are quite a few also, who would rather say "I told you so". "Listen K'naan" they would say... "You can't make genre-hopping musicwith lyrics that actually have meaning and be successful". I've heardthis through out my entire musical life, even from people who wish me well.But I could never lower myself to make music that I don't believe in. This iswhy I made Troubadour, and there is a reason why I recorded it in BobMarley's home studio in Jamaica. You can now give the entire album a listenon myspace. I'm very proud of it and I hope that it will mean somethingto you for a long time to come. This tuesday, February 24th, the albumwill be available on iTunes, music stores and all major on and offlineoutlets. If you love it, I ask that you actually buy it. This is when supportingreal music becomes real critical. Trust me, the odds are way bigger than us. Tell everyone you know also, because it's one thing to commend me for myefforts and integrity, but it's another thing to help me continue to do it.

Thank you very much, and know that all the support is truly appreciated.